Concept Design of a Deployable Marine Energy Testing System

Abstract

AbstractMarine renewable energy has the potential to be a significant contributor to the world's energy portfolio. However, the technology is still in early stages of development, largely due to the lack of infrastructure to support in-water testing. A small number of established permanent test sites exist, but these sites are often prohibitively expensive to build and operate. The objective of this project was to develop a concept design for a small deployable marine energy test system. The solution described is a self-contained system with the capability to monitor the local environmental conditions, host and test one small wave energy converter (typically <1-kW power generation), and collect and store data from the device. The system employs a Sofar Spotter V2 buoy for environmental assessment, a triangular mooring configuration to secure the device, and a USB data acquisition device paired with a laptop computer for data collection and analysis. The system is completely housed in a portable trailer and could be deployed to any area with suitable water conditions (depth, wave environment, etc.). The concept design presented here could serve as a baseline for low-cost customized deployable systems for use by academia, industry, or government organizations.